Carla Silva, the former secretary of António Lacerda Sales, has requested that the Parliament apply the witness protection regime for her hearing at the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) regarding the alleged favoritism in the case of Luso-Brazilian twins treated with a million-dollar medication at Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon.
In her request, the former secretary – who had already asked for a closed-door hearing – justified her demands with the need to maintain “privacy and safeguard fundamental rights, namely her moral integrity and freedom of expression.”
Carla Silva’s name appeared in a report by the General Inspection of Health Activities (IGAS), which indicated that it was Sales’ former secretary who contacted Santa Maria Hospital to schedule the twins’ appointment. This information has already been denied by the former Secretary of State for Health.
In the report, IGAS explained that Carla Silva sent information such as “the children’s identity, date of birth, diagnosis, and dates when the parents could be present” to Santa Maria Hospital under the guidance of the former Secretary of State.
She will be heard on September 20, and her request will be discussed and voted on by deputies a week earlier, on September 13.
At the end of July, the commission’s president, Rui Paulo Sousa, had already mentioned that the former secretary had requested to be heard behind closed doors. He explained that the request was made under Article 15, paragraph 1, subparagraphs a and b of the Legal Regime of Parliamentary Inquiries, which allows for requesting a closed-door hearing “for privacy reasons or more sensitive matters.”
This article provides that hearings in inquiry committees should be public, except in cases where “the proceedings involve matters subject to state secrecy, judicial secrecy, or confidentiality for reasons of personal privacy” or “the deponents oppose the public nature of the meeting, based on the safeguarding of fundamental rights.”
